Another international break is here and it’s hard to know if it comes at a good or bad time for Newcastle United.
Back-to-back defeats in the league have been damaging, and we need to bounce back, but do we need time to rest, recuperate and work on our problems at both ends of the pitch, or a game ASAP to put things right?
Sunday’s defeat at Brentford cemented what’s been a really poor start to the season, and post-match updates from Howe added to frustration in the camp as two Mags have now been forced to withdraw from international action.
Before the game, it was revealed that Anthony Gordon hadn’t travelled with the squad due to a niggling hip injury, then we saw Nick Pope and Joelinton forced off with issues during the game.
Speaking after the match, Howe has confirmed that Pope has suffered concussion and will miss out on England duty after a surprise call-up, with Gordon’s hip injury also forcing him to pull out ahead of games against Serbia and Albania:
> _“Nick Pope suffered a concussion and that’s why we took him off,. As soon as we were made aware of that, he was withdrawn._
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> _“Initially, I wasn’t told anything in the sense that he was concussed and then a message came that we wasn’t feeling too well and he had to come off.”_
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> _“He won’t go with England. It’s 12 days (recovery), I think._
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> _“Anthony (Gordon) has a minor injury, so he’ll miss England.”_
Joelinton took a heavy whack to the knee in the opening stages and struggled to run it off, seeing Jacob Ramsey replace him midway through the first half.
Howe believes it was nothing more than a knock for the Brazilian, but was not able to offer a full update on Joelinton’s condition when speaking straight after the game.
> _“Joelinton, I’m not sure, looked like a knock, but I haven’t had a full discussion or debrief from the medical team on him.”_
